OS X Lion May Have Stalled, Stuck As Third Most Popular Mac OS [Report]

Just how popular is OS X Lion 10.7, compared to its predecessors? “Lion’s adoption has been less than stellar,” says one online ad firm. Yet the figures don’t seem to jive with other Internet surveys, as well as Apple’s. Who’s right? As often is the case, it depends on who you ask.

Although Apple used Lion to migrate many iOS behaviors and features to the Mac, just 16 percent of users have adopted the desktop software, according to ad service Chitika. Introduced in July, the OS is the third-most-popular version of the Mac software, behind 10.6 Snow Leopard (56%) and 10.5 Leopard’s 22 percent.

Adoption of 10.7 has slowed during September and October to a fourth that of August, the company claims. This appears to run counter of Apple statements that Lion sold 6 million copies in early October, almost twice that of 10.6 when it was released in 2009.

For many users, the one major difference Apple took with 10.7 is the delivery method. Instead of selling physical installation DVDs, the Cupertino, Calif. company offered Lion as an iTunes download. Like Snow Leopard, Lion was also not compatible with older Power PC-based Macs.

Another metrix firm, Net Applications, disputes the Chitika figures. According to the California firm, Lion has 26.4 percent of Macs, making it the second-most-popular OS, as of October. Snow Leopard is still No. 1, but with a lower 52.1 percent, while Leopard ranks No. 3 with 16.5 percent of the market.

However, like Chitika, Net Applications also notes a slowdown in adoption. Although the firm reported an 11.5 percent adoption rate increase in August, the number was nearly cut in half by September, growing just 4.5 percent. By October, adoption rose by only 4.5 percent, Net Applications claims.

The different ranking could be attributed to Net Applications’ methodology, which puts more emphasis on Internet users in China than U.S. online Mac owners. Because there are more Internet users based in China, one Chinese Internet user could statistically overshadow one U.S. user.

How do you feel? Have you upgraded to Lion? Let us know in the comments.

Deals of the Day

I have upgraded only at work. My personal machine is still on Snow Leopard. I still like Xcode3, and I still like playing Starcraft 1. Killing Rosetta was a bad move. I also dislike the new Mission Control – it’s messy. Spaces were also previously two-dimensional (with both rows and columns), and now they are one-dimensional. When I use Xcode4, I have more use for show/hide toolbar button than for the go fullscreen button. I find no use for Launchpad. Touchpad gestures configuration is now done in a confusing way, and I’d prefer assigning gestures to actions instead of just turning on gestures. Custom icons being killed in sidebar is extremely annoying.Overall, there’s only a few things I’d like to see back in Snow Leopard, such as AirDrop, popover for Downloads in Safari (and popovers are doable in Snow Leopard even without the special API Apple prepared for Lion), next/previous page in history in Safari and Chrome, as well as iCloud. Other things are not really important for me, or are counterproductive.

Magic_Al

The rather senseless omission of Rosetta was a show-stopper for me. I have some older apps that run very well on Snow Leopard and there’s no obvious reason why Rosetta couldn’t have been carried over to Lion.

iHum4n

I don’t use any applications the use Rosetta, so I saw no reason not to upgrade. I’m loving the new features.

Len Williams

The elimination of Rosetta has stopped me from updating the 5 Macs in our business. We still use several bits of software that only run under Rosetta and haven’t been updated yet. Snow Leopard is a great OS and continues to be our OS of choice. I see no reason Apple couldn’t have continued Rosetta. I usually am an early adopter of each version of the Mac OS, but I’m sitting this one out. It will be a major hurdle to find replacements and update our software to make everything Lion-compatible. I may just stick with Snow Leopard for a year or two more. There’s nothing in Lion that is earth shatteringly important to upgrade for.

Now when they bring Siri to the Mac, that will give me a reason to upgrade.

Lion is everything Snow Leopard should have been. Some features are used more than others while some features, like Launchpad, make no sense to the seasoned Mac user. Mission Control makes more sense of running programs and creates an easier way to use virtual desktops, or Spaces in Snow Leopard. Plus you can swipe down into Expose, so essentially it’s the best of both worlds.

Killing Rosetta does suck, but should you blame Apple for leaping their OS forward or should you blame the software companies that still use Rosetta? Were you mad when Apple switched to Intel? How about when Power-PCs lost support in Snow Leopard? Just because a new desktop alienates a very few people that still use out-dated software doesn’t make 10.7 a disaster.

Lion was a win for Apple in any way you look at it. Whether you use all of the new features or only a few, $30 upgrades are always well spent with Apple.

Wildirishrose05

I think most SL users are waiting for the bugs to be worked out of Lion before they purchase. I was an early Lion user and my MacBook Pro has frozen many times upon startup. Never did that with SL. I am glad I didn’t wait, but I am sure that is par tof the reason…

morrislevy

Here’s the low-down about Mac OSX Lion 10.7:

– Removal of support for Rosetta — these implications are HUGE! This kills all the applications you used to be able to use and love on old Macs, totally killing off OS9 or earlier PowerPC architecture applications.

– In the real-world business environment, this ruins all compatible programs. A good chunk of software I use needs support, and there is none for Lion as it is currently. It is too new, changed too many things about the Mac OSX environment, and cannot be supported by larger enterprise companies and their software developers.

– The removal of Java as a package bundled update was THE WORST decision ever. I need Java on the Mac for Juniper Networks “Network Connect” software, most websites, and tons of other applications. Why would this be removed? At the request of Sun Microsystems? I think not.

– The new features suck. Plain and simple. Mission Control is THE SAME as “Spaces”. Launchpad — you might as well just go buy an iPad. No one needs this useless GUI of launching applications you use once a month or less. Just put them in your dock! Stupid!

– Possibly the worst thing — “Natural Direction” scrolling. This, above all, is THE WORST new “feature”, and the worst default setting. A client I support said, “the only thing natural about this is it being un-natural”. Very true. I hate the two-finger click, I hate the “natural scrolling, and I hate not being able to tap-to-click. Apple, wake up and smell the roses.

You try telling me one thing more useful about Lion, and it was already there in Snow Leopard.

morrislevy

Why?

Gereon

I have two systems, one runnning SL the other running Lion.Lion is buggy, laggish and has serious bluetooth issues which makes keyboard and mouse unusable.I have a feeling that this OS was rushed so the man would have a chance to see it go live.

Mission control and launchpad might be a nice feature for whoever needs it, but to me these are completely useless. But then again, that’s just me.

As a FreeHand User, I still need Rosetta now and then.

So as long as I don’t have to upgrade, I definitely won’t, sorry.

Jargeros

While I am using Lion and value certain modern features like app store, I consider Snow Leopard a superior os and may still return to it.

Alberto Hernandez

If Rosetta was in Lion then it would also be in 10.8, 10.9 and so on. You have to abruptly kill old software so people can adapt.

Karras

I’ve only recently become a Mac owner and have started out with Lion, so cannot really compare how it runs next to Snow Leopard. I also do not have any of the baggage of trying to keep legacy apps working. But overall, for what I am using at the moment, I have to say I am impressed. Battery life only becomes poor when trying to play games that the MBP 13″ was not really designed to handle, even if it can put in an acceptable performance. Otherwise, I reckon for light use I am getting pretty close to Apple’s quoted battery life. There are few things in day to day use that I would consider slow either. Despite running a conventional HDD, most apps load in a timely manner and little lag is experienced. There certainly has been some glitches and things like iPhoto does indeed take a while to open, but it has been pretty smooth sailing for a long time PC user such as myself.

fortninety

I’ve gotten used to Lion by this point, and even like some of the finer details, but must say, everything Ivan says is on the money.

Hey, Launchpad is neat and all, but it honestly serves no real purpose, other than to make OS X to look iOS like.

It’s not as buggy as it was in day one, but I’m still annoyed by many of its needless little things. Like the omission of custom side bar icons. It’s not destroying my workflow, but it still sucks.

fortninety

What exactly was the reasoning behind the axing of Rosetta once again? I know a LOT of people working in the publishing world who simply cannot afford to lose access to countless numbers of (and quite expensive to replace) software that’s PowerPC based.

morgan3nelson

I believe that the biggest obstacle preventing adoption of Lion is the delivery method. The Mac App Store is fundamentally a good idea, but flawed in MANY ways. First – the dependence on a better than average broadband connection to download the 3.7GB install file is a barrier of adoption. Second – the fact that people are discovering that their purchases on the Mac App Store do not allow for backing up your installation files to a local disk for re-installation, but instead further increase your dependence on a good internet connection is problematic. If Apple increased the cost by $10 for physical media as opposed to the 200% price of the USB media option, you would see much broader growth of Lion.

Mike Pisino

This is BY FAR the buggiest OS that I’ve used since the transition was made to 10.0. The new features don’t blow me away, the all windows Esposè is broken and shows no signs of being revised, Time Machine has caused my iMac to crash a number of times since the upgrade (has to do with multiple users and a TM backup running during the switch) and it seems that Dashboard is using more resources than it had previously. Anyone who “loves” this new OS hasn’t been around Apple for long, either that or they have been around a little TOO long and won’t bash something for being subpar when it’s by Apple. I, myself, love Apple, but I’m willing to call a spade a spade, and this thing is not living up to it’s predecessors.

Ray Tyson

I actually love it!!

anon71

I like Snow Lep better than Lion and am sorry that I “upgraded.” Much of the iOS stuff they tried to shoehorn in to Lion is unnecessary and doesn’t even make any real sense (Launchpad and Mission Control for starters).

JT_CHITOWN

When Snow Leopard came out, it seemed everyone complained that it broke their [fill in the blank], since it was a complete rewrite of the Finder in Cocoa and, to a large degree, abandoned creator codes. Now, with Lion, it is deja vu with things like discontinuation of Rosetta have people upset. Also, Adobe had neither their professional applications nor Flash ready to go at Lion’s launch. Throw in the biggest difference, a shift to digital delivery (which, for all the doomsayers talk, went off with little in the way of hitches), plus steeper hardware requirements, and it makes sense adoption would be a bit slower than previous versions.

When Leopard came out, people were quick to proclaim it “Apple’s Vista.”

When Snow Leopard came out, people were quick to proclaim it “Apple’s Vista.”

P.S. I believe I read somewhere that Lion’s adoption still is outpacing Windows 7 at the 4 month mark.

JJ

I have an early 2006 white macbook core duo. 32 bit. I am also shut out of upgrading to Lion. I’m don’t have a pressing need to move to a new machine.

prof_peabody

What a lot of nonsense. You don’t know what you’re talking about for the most part and are at best a very unusual edge case user if you use PowerPC apps still as well as needing Java.

Java is a ten second download BTW. The only thing that’s been removed is the automatic downloading of the latest Java patch/version.

Ed_Kel

You’re right. An OS that abandoned out dated software like Rosetta makes it a poorly implemented, fragmented OS like Vista…. Maybe it’s time to switch to Win7, my friend.

Ed_Kel

Don’t use Launchpad and I won’t even try to understand how you think Mission Control doesn’t make sense – swipe up and look at the pretty pictures! Add virtual desktops and have a clear view of all running apps on your Mac; now was that so difficult?

prof_peabody

I don’t know why people get mad about launchpad. It’s just a placeholder for future improvements, no one actually uses the thing.

That being said, my pet peeves are:

– spell correction everywhere with no user control over it at all. (at least we should have the option of turning it off for certain fields or editing the dictionary).

– the removal of “save as …” is a gigantic mistake IMO. we now have to rely on an invisible versioning system that most people have no idea how to access. versioning and automatic saves work well on iOS but on a desktop they go against 20 years of established practice and there isn’t even an option provided to avoid this mess.

– automatic restarting of programs/windows is seriously broken and confuses most people no end. I have to explain this mess to people every single day and they still don’t get it. it also takes five to ten minutes to shut down or start up your computer now. ridiculously broken implementation, and very poorly explained to the end user.

– Safari is seriously borked. the swiping of pages introduces a huge security hole, and it basically doesn’t work anyway. If you use any kind of blocking software especially like adblockers or cookie blockers, the entire edifice of Safari comes crashing down about four or five times a day minimum. The user no longer has control over their privacy or blocking at all with the exception of using Apple’s “private browsing” feature. So you can throw that switch to turn it on (knowing nothing about how it’s implemented or if it’s even private), or you can try to manage your own privacy and have Safari crash/hang every ten minutes.

prof_peabody

I don’t know why people get mad about launchpad. It’s just a placeholder for future improvements, no one actually uses the thing.

That being said, my pet peeves are:

– spell correction everywhere with no user control over it at all. (at least we should have the option of turning it off for certain fields or editing the dictionary).

– the removal of “save as …” is a gigantic mistake IMO. we now have to rely on an invisible versioning system that most people have no idea how to access. versioning and automatic saves work well on iOS but on a desktop they go against 20 years of established practice and there isn’t even an option provided to avoid this mess.

– automatic restarting of programs/windows is seriously broken and confuses most people no end. I have to explain this mess to people every single day and they still don’t get it. it also takes five to ten minutes to shut down or start up your computer now. ridiculously broken implementation, and very poorly explained to the end user.

– Safari is seriously borked. the swiping of pages introduces a huge security hole, and it basically doesn’t work anyway. If you use any kind of blocking software especially like adblockers or cookie blockers, the entire edifice of Safari comes crashing down about four or five times a day minimum. The user no longer has control over their privacy or blocking at all with the exception of using Apple’s “private browsing” feature. So you can throw that switch to turn it on (knowing nothing about how it’s implemented or if it’s even private), or you can try to manage your own privacy and have Safari crash/hang every ten minutes.

Just_Me_Brett

Use my iMac as a DAW 1st. Lion has not been friendly to me as I have issues I never had with Leopard or SL regarding plugins & such. Not a fan of the iOS additions to my desktop. Don’t care for Finder in Lion either. Upgraded back to SL for my iMac. Will do the same for my Macbooks also.

foleypod

I’m definitely loving Lion. Best OSX yet.

Marc S

Why doesn’t Apple try fixing the Mail program first! Then Lion might get some credibility.

Andy Douglas

I haven’t been convinced to switch yet. I’m still on Snow Leopard :)

Ed_Kel

Other than Safari, Everything you railed off there can easily be altered or changed back to 10.6 adaptation by unchecking boxes or wandering through preference panes.. In other words, that novel you just wrote has no relevance to the conversation.

Larry Thomson

I have not migrated, even though I purchased Lion. I loaded it and found that I simply did not care for the interface. Along with the disconcerting loss of functionality with the gestures, it is quite evident that Apple seems to want to take my computer, with which I perform computing work, into an iOS device. I am not interested in going that direction. If I want a toy, I have both an iPad and iPhone for that.

Ed_Kel

And how is Automatic Restarting of apps poorly explained to the end user? the damn checkbox is highlighted everytime you log off! Point and click my friend; can’t get much easier than that.

apple’s little bitch

Lion all the way (first day buyer here) ! I have never before upgraded any OS that fast because it’s always better to wait awhile to see how everything works for others BUT it’s fricking Apple and you have to make notice that’s already 10.7.2.

Overall it’s great, even though when you consider pros and cons it’s not much of a big leap. It slowed my mac a little, some new features aren’t mind-blowing and most of the others are available on Snow Leopard in some way (MacAppStore, FaceTime, Trackpad gestures, Launchpad = Quicklaunch). So that basically leaves file Auto Save Versions, iCloud, changed Spaces/Expose (again not something brand new) and other essential small tweaks (hd encryption, fullscreen option, no more aqua scrollbars).I’m hoping for future updates to bring something more to the table in 10.7.5 – more personal customization options with trackpad gestures etc., AirPlay mirroring, iMessages, maybe a better voice control like Siri ? Upgrading to Lion is an investment in the future so waiting a bit will pay off

macgizmo

It’s been nearly 6 years since a PowerPC-based Mac has been sold. If a professional publishing company hasn’t upgraded their hardware in 6 years, they couldn’t run the latest OS anyway – Rosetta or not.

David Marshall

omputerworld posted the first article on this topic that I’m aware of:

They cite the same sources you do, but get tripped up adding unsubstantiated opinion. For instance, they say Apple made upgrading to Lion “difficult and expensive”. In reality, the upgrade is $30 and easily available for Snow Leopard users through the App Store.

I haven’t upgraded, but only ’cause I’m lazy and don’t need Lion’s new features. They did a pretty good job with Snow Leopard.

I_am_Andy

Have it… Love it.Let the old men use old OS’s.

c.t

Or they could have kept it until OS XI

ZeeKazim

I like it on my MacBook Air so very much! The gestures work great for me, though I must admit it’s a little buggy compared to SL. I’d pretty much prefer Snow Leopard on my iMac for those specific reasons.

You know what killed the growth? Legacy App users. Totally killing the PowerPC Rosetta support has kept me an many others from moving up to Lion. We have no way to keep those legacy programs running and thus can’t switch.

If Apple were to take that Rosetta engine and sandbox it the way VirualBox and others do with virtual desktops the would be an instant market AND a sudden jump in Lion Adoption.

Dorje Sylas

I blame them for not offering or working with a company to get PowerPC support into a virtual desktop system. I’d likely pay the OS price again for a Parallels or similar system that would let me run OS 6, 9.0.2, 9.2, and 10.4 the way you can run Windows. This is a ball totally in Apple’s court that they have NEVER bothered to kick. Most modern computers have more then enough raw power to handle this but a developer would really need Apple’s help in getting this kind of program going.

Ryan Beall

For older Macs its just not working well. It’s a huge resource hog and things like Chrome are almost unusable on it.

RyanTV

It is a Mac App Store download, not an iTunes download.

morrislevy

Shove it up where the sun doesn’t shine, buddy.

Ed_Kel

The same argument could be made for loss of iOS support on the iPhone 3G.. It’s the nature of the beast. Power-PC users/developers had over 10 years to adapt. Get with the times or get left behind.

prof_peabody

You are probably too busy being an asshole here to read this, but I get at least a couple of people a *day* in my office who have to be given the long explanation of how it all works. They sometimes come back a week later with the same problem.

Your glib remark about how all of these things can be changed with preferences is completely wrong (most cannot), and misses the point entirely.

Joshzilla666

I have lion but I’m seRiously considering re-installing snow leaped as I’ve noticed a significant decrease in speed and performance. It takes much longer for basic apps to open and run and this minor lag is really annoying me. I use a 2010 MacBook pro with 4gig of ram so it shouldn’t have any problems with performance, yet I have noticed the lag far too often.

Buzz

I’m still using Snow Leopard. Sorry, but there’s a couple of utilities I depend on that require Rosetta — and that includes Office 2004, because my government contractors are still using 2003, and (despite all protests to the contrary) more recent versions of Office aren’t fully compatible with older ones. I would upgrade to Lion if, somehow, Rosetta were upgraded to work with it as well.

Tom_is_niko

I love lion and I have never had any problems at all. Sometimes an app isn’t compatible but eventually they get updated to support lion

Adrian Anhorn

Happy with Snow Leopard and will be for some time to come.

TeeJay1100

I think Lion is their worst OS of the 3: Leopard, Snow Leopard, and Lion! And the consumers show that they don’t like Lion or want it.

Huge

Doesn’t run legacy applications like older versions of Filemaker. No thanks!

Mike Rathjen

Lack of Rosetta and physical disc makes me uninterested.

Cowboy Ron

Until I can afford to update some expensive Rosetta apps, Lion will just have to wait.

Matthew Riddle

The word I think you mean is “jibe” — to be in accord with. Not jive.

Honyant

Back up the installation file before hitting the Install button and everything is honky dory.

Ben Singer

Ben Singer

Lion is GREAT !!! Technology is about moving forward. You can only live in the past for so long before you are forced to move forward. So, move forward on your terms before you are forced to do so.

Chris Blake

Lion is buggy, many gestures aren’t intuitive when using the trackpad, and my biggest issue is the loss of spaces. I already have hack apps trying to make the inverted gestures normal, I am using launchpad as i used to use spaces and have ‘stuck’ apps to desktops, with custom desktops with the application logo on it so that I can tell what i am doing.I got it with a new machine 11″ macbook air, and the speed of starting and opening apps is mind blowing. I like the restarting of apps and browser windows.If they brought back spaces I wouldn’t mind. I have a 17″ macbook pro (10.5.8), and often jump between the two, so I would like somethings to remain the same – otherwise i have to think too much just about switching apps.I don’t want my desktop/laptop to work like a handheld device – because it’s not! All these starbucks fools have jumped onto the apple brand like it is their only image – and for that all us serious users are having to suffer. First time I have ever been so disappointed with Apple having been a loyal customer for 11 years.

marioyohanes

I think Lion adoption got slowed because the fact Sandy Bridge MBP was released earlier this year while Lion released 6 months after the new MBP came out. Most of Mac users don’t buy new OS, they’ll wait until they buy a new hardware, at least for non technical users.

Portucalense

Mac user since Mac System 6. Now I plan to stay with Snow Leopard until both computers die (Mac Mini 2009 & iMac 2010), after that will go Windows, or Mac if things revert or I will be free for something really new. Major reasons:• No Install/recover DVD• I have no Mac App Store account, and don’t intend to get one (too many telephone software)• DVD player, flash, java, seams to be in the way out• Lion being designed like a portable telephone system, even so it can slow down the computer…• People say Microsoft Office 2011 have issues with Lion• Many applications seam to have issues, not only old PPC ones• Looks like buying app in Mac App Store is not such a great idea (sand-boxed… can’t be downgraded… Apple can deny you access to the app you bought? etc.).–> Looks every day more like good-bye for me.

Ed_Kel

Spell correction –The language of spell checking is set in system preferences/language & text/text/spelling

There should be a box there to turn off spelling correction too.

You can also set it for most apps in Edit > Spelling & Grammar > Show Spelling & Grammar.

For Pages it is different: Inspector > Text > More > Language.

Removal of Save as –Lock the document and then manually create a version of your saved document at any time by choosing File > Save a Version or press Command-S (?-S).

Is someone an asshole for proving you wrong time and time again, or is someone an asshole for trolling Mac sites and do nothing but complain about Apple?

Ed_Kel

Poor grammar aside, your comment makes absolutely no sense at all.

Ed_Kel

You make some good points, but some are just wrong.

You buy a recovery flash drive or create one yourself; not to mention the recovery partition that Lion creates. Much safer than physical media.

Not sure what you mean “too many telephone software”, but the Mac App Store is a great tool for getting software just like the App Store is for iPhone/iPad apps and iTunes for music.

All Macs have DVD players except the MBA but Superdrives are rather inexpensive or you can borrow a DVD drive from a different computer. Flash has always been on the way out and Java is still (and always will be) running strong.

I have no issues with Office for Mac on Lion

I have yet to find one application that doesn’t play well with Lion – even Adobe Air apps.

Sandboxing doesn’t look to be a good idea; I agree. But Apple denying you access?…I need more than that as I have never heard this happen before.

Either way you slice it, you are far better off than switching to a Windows machine. Even if I agreed with you on all of your concerns, my iMac would still be better off than my HP DV7.

Ed_Kel

6 million plus downloads since release really does show that consumers don’t like or want Lion, ay? Not to mention the record Mac sales that ship with Lion..

Portucalense

1. I read that the recovery drive on sale, can’t work with the Mac Mini on sale.2. I never had a Mac with a partition and don’t look forward to it.3. Too many app in the Mac App Store have features to the level of a modern telephone or a 1980’s computer.4. A partition not safer than a DVD. DVD can install in a new disk and a broken disk is useless for recovery.5. MBA don’t have DVD players, Mac Mini have them either.6. Superdrives are not too expensive, but Mac desktops are expensive enough to come with a superdrive.7. I use 3 computers. 2 are Macs and 1 is an ASUS laptop with Vista. I use it seldom, true, but never had any serious trouble with it. If my Mac Mini dies tomorrow, I will move to it gladly as my main computer.

Chris Blake

I don’t know about all the stats, but all I can see is a mass market people jumping to Apple products because of the phone and iPad. Probably the same people that have been slating the Apple desktops over PCs for years. These fashion muppets that just want to use Facebook app 24/7 and have no real need for powerful work station. I like all the new toys and things, sexy animations and suchlike but not at the cost of functionality. Most people, and me included naturally assume a new OS release will be an improvement (well after bugs are ironed out) and everybody wants the latest and so on… So I don’t think people are getting Lion because they know it’s a better OS, maybe they say they love it cos they don;t have any other Apple OS to compare it to, maybe they love it cos it’s just like their iPad (bless). In whatever case I use my mac for a bunch of stuff, I need it for WORK and Lion is just too much of a step in the direction of showing off pretty little icons and hand gestures for my liking and not enough about supporting the software that it was once renowned for – music, design industries. My biggest issue is with losing spaces – I would;t be whining so much otherwise. Other bugs are bluetooth, dock not always hiding, apps not sticking to desktops. Why they are updating things like iTunes match – what about my OS! I don;t give a toss about airdrop, iCloud or any of that junk. There are apps that do that anyway. I just want to navigate my apps quickly and painlessly – something I could do on Leopard, but now. I’ve strayed of the point – big sales are cos of the brands popularity due to iPhone and iPad. People might upgrade to Lion thinking it is better – but I am seeing a lot of complaints.

Ed_Kel

Your OS is already on a partition. That partition may be the entire hard drive, but nevertheless, a partition. Even Windows machines have recovery partitions. My HP DV7 came with no physical media; just a 3gb recovery partition.

Obviously you haven’t seen what is in the Mac App Store or you would know that big players like Adobe and Electronic Arts and Autodesk and Microsoft (to name a few) offer software through the Mac App Store – hardly what I would call “to the level of the modern telephone”

A partition is safer than a DVD. And if the partition fails, then use online recovery. Apple’s servers are far more secure than that box of software media in your closet.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but it sounds more and more like you are afraid of change, especially with the last couple of sentences you wrote. You can’t make any just claims about Apple’s new ventures without spilling fear and ignorance into the battle. Maybe a Mac isn’t right for you.

Ed_Kel

I’ve been around Macs since the days of Tiger and I can’t say that I agree with you on functionality. Full-screen apps are killer and the ability to swipe between them along with virtual desktops are a huge selling point in terms of functionality.

You aren’t the first person that has complained about Lion not having Spaces.. Please tell me how creating virtual desktops in Mission Control is tougher than using Spaces? I personally believe that Mission Control finally makes sense of virtual desktops and makes it easier to create and manage them..

Guest

Same here.

Ed_Kel

You should download the trial of 2011, or 2008 if you can find it. I have no trouble saving in 97-2004 format and my colleagues have no trouble opening them..

Sadeq008

in Iran downloading lion will take days So for us it SuckS !

Ramonsterrr

have you tried cleaning your mac using an app such as CleanMyMac? And have you tried repairing disk permissions? Usually that solves a lot of these problems. I have a MacBook Pro, early 2011, 13″ model, and its performance is actually snappier on Lion than it was on Snow Leopard…

Jimmy JJ

I upgraded and my 17″ Macbook Pro, slowed up. I almost thought I was running a PC, lol. I then boosted my RAM form 4gb to 8gb and now it’s running smooth. I still find myself having to reboot every so often as I sense a slowdown but nothing like it was before I upgraded the memory.

Jimmy JJ

I upgraded to 8gb of ram and now my computer is running smooth. I had the same issue with Lion before upgrading the memory. Snow Leopard was fine with 4gb.

Lynnette S

I upgraded both my MacBook and Mac mini to Lion. I like most of the new features or upgraded features. Some I could do without. Whether the OS is Lion, Snow Leopard or Leopard, they are still better then any version of Windows, which I have also used.

WalAda

I sure wish I knew how to UNINSTALL this Lion junk. Snow Leopard was much better.

wytchkraft_corp

In my last work there were 2 MacBook Pros and an iMac. My coworkers upgraded to Lion so I had a chance to play around the new OS before upgrading my personal MacBook. I didn’t. I don’t quite like Lion 100% after exploring the new features and looking for the ones I use the most on SL, Lion hasn’t convinced me at all…yet

wytchkraft_corp

totally agreed!

Aa

Lion uses too much like iOS. We are dealing with Macs. I REALLY miss many features that were taken away from Snow Leopard and I dislike the vast majority of the features with Lion. Apple needs to isolate iOS and Mac OS again. The hardware is just really different.

Ray Holan

I’ve been underwhelmed. Lots of gingerbread, no meat and potatoes. Who needs launchpad? Mission Control is a mess. Slow reboot time despite many fixes. iCloud? A counter-intuitive mish-mash. Where is the compelling new feature? After 2 months of using Lion, I’m still looking for it. Very disappointed. Been a Mac user since 1985 and this is the first really questionable “upgrade”. $29 is no bargain if it doesn’t bring something good to the table.

Dustin Brothers

One word: gestures.

Guest

NO ROSETTA…NO LION…Now I hear that you can’t use Mountain Lion on a machine older than 2007? Screw that.